Power Your Website with SEO-Driven Copywriting

As designers, it’s our job to design beautiful, custom, responsive websites that best reflect and promote our clients’ brands and services. As marketers, it's essential that we provide search engine optimization expertise to ensure these websites achieve high rankings with Google and other search engines. Google has recently changed the way it rates and values websites – and we'd like to share some latest trends and best copywriting practices.

Keep it Real:

Google values the quality of copywriting – well-written optimized content that is engaging, relevant to the topic and keeps readers interested. Be sure your copy makes it a point of benefiting the reader. Previously, websites were loaded up with keywords to attract search engines, but this practice is now frowned-upon and Google will actually demote websites who continue to implement these strategies.

Quantity:

While the trend is to be more concise with text on websites, considering so many people are accessing the web from their mobile devices, you still need a quantity of text if you want search engines to favor your website. Write at least 250 words per page on your website to ensure success. For blogs, make them even longer since they’re more likely to engage readers.

Make it Easy:

Your text should be easy to read – keep away from lengthy paragraphs of dense text. Use headlines, subheads, bullet points and lots of white space when writing your text. And, use keywords integrated into your text so search engines do pick up on it. Use a primary keyword for each page topic and use it 2-5 times depending on the length of the copy.

Searchable Headlines:

Search engines look first for headlines (H1 tags), but it’s also important to write concise headlines that represent the content of your page that is appealing to search engines and people. Subheadlines (H2 tags) are another opportunity to let search engines know what your content is on a secondary level.

Call to Action:

It’s always a good idea to have a visitor do something when they’re on your website, so a call-to-action that incorporate keywords will increase conversions, which is really what it’s all about.

In Good Company:

While it won’t necessarily help your SEO, it’s always a good idea to associate yourself mentioning names of clients and brands associated with your business, because this can help with your own brand credibility.

Be Social:

Take advantage of your social networks, including Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram and provide links your website and blog and encourage your audience to share your content. Organic practices like this will also help with search engine optimization.

One More Thing:

Don't feel obligated to purchase a search engine optimization service. Some companies claim to "guarantee" high ranking for your site in Google's search results. While legitimate consulting firms can improve your site's flow and content, others employ deceptive tactics in an attempt to fool search engines. Be careful; if your domain is affiliated with one of these deceptive services, it could be banned from Google’s index.